Rugby League World Cup every two years : Sun Aug 16, 2015 9:08 am
Of course, in an ideal world, you would have a World Cup every four years.In reality, the only way international Rugby League will really begin to reach the level it ought to be at, is to have a Rugby League World Cup every two years as the basis for the development of the game internationally.
The RL World Cup in the Southern Hemisphere in 2017 should be followed by another in the Northern Hemisphere in 2019, back down under in 2021 and so on. Two immediate benefits would be improved attraction and retention of players and a burgeoning international game in development countries as they see the attraction of various global qualifying competitions in the intervening years.
I've seen allsorts of clever proposed international calendars covering 4, 6 or 8 years involving old style tours etc. But we have to accept that they are not going to happen. Organising and running a World Cup is hard work but surely the game's administrators here and down under are up to taking their own turn every four years.
Once biennial World Cups have been in place for a generation, then a sensible debate could be had about whether it would be right to scale back to every three or four years.
I don't buy the argument about not wanting to clash with other major events - soccer world cup, Olympics etc. That's not really a valid reason not to go ahead. The game has to have confidence in it's own attractiveness. If Fiji v Ireland on a cold, wet November night in 2013 can be sold out, anything is possible. Familiarity does not breed contempt - I've lost count of the number of England v Australia cricket Ashes series in the last 10 years with no detriment.
The club chairmen should push for it; a stronger more visible ongoing international game would have positive impact on club competitions (including the world club series).
